Canvas tapestry of Vienna

Here's my latest finished project: a collage tapestry on canvas. It seems like a lot of my projects are inspired by my experience of living in Vienna for a short time but I've had this canvas project in mind for quite a while.

This one I started a little over 3 years ago and just finished it this week. Why so long? Well, my little guy is 3 1/2 and I guess I've had other things on my plate. It also took me a long time to choose my images, scan and print others, and then assemble everything as I liked.

Some of the pieces like photos, ticket stubs, maps, and letters are mine. Everything else I found on the internet. I scanned things to make the paper sources all the same. I wanted everything to react the same way when I glued it down to the canvas with matte medium.

I really like the divider on the piece, about 2/3 of the way down. I like how it breaks things up a bit. I painted it using 4 different colors of acrylic paint. Then I decided I wanted to add a few metal pieces there of things I picked up on my excursions to Naschmarkt in Vienna. I have a coat collar fastening, a Helason key, and some Kärnten buttons. I sewed them or glued them directly on to the canvas.

I was inspired to do this kind of art on a canvas after I saw this blog post by Diane Bouchard. I fell in love with her concept and knew I could create something similar that was entirely my own. Diane and her friends used beeswax to seal the canvas. I was thinking about it for mine but then decided I would use a varnish instead. I used a satin finish varnish from Liquitex. Nice stuff.

A few more notes and pictures:

I photoshopped Otto Wagner on to a copy of one of his building sketches and then printed it out as a single piece.

After I glued everything down, I went around the edges of each image with a black oil pastel to make a border or frame. It kind of compartmentalized everything.

There are a few tiny details of structures like this little one of Peterskirche. I scanned them out of a travel guide and then fussy cut them out before gluing them on.